SURREY'S LOVE FOR THE PAIRE GERALDINE 245
but to these he gave the appearance of historical authenticity
by prefixing to Surrey's "epistle" this argument:6
Henry Howard, that true noble Earl of Surrey, an excellent Poet,
falling in loue with Geraldine; descended of the noble family of the
Fitzgeralds of Ireland, a faire and modest Lady; and one of the
honorable maydes to Queen Katherine Dowager: eternizeth her
prayses in many excellent Poems, of rare and sundry inuentions:
and after some fewe yeares, being determined to see that famous
Italy, the source and Helicon of al excellent Arts; first visiteth that
renowned Florence, from whence the Geralds challenge their
descent, from the ancient family of the Geraldi: there in honor of
his mistresse he aduaunceth her picture: and challengeth to main-
tame her beauty by deedes of Armes against all that durst appeare
in the lists, where after the proofe of his braue and incomparable
valour, whose arme crowned her beauty with eternall memory,
he writeth this Epistle to his deerest Mistris.
During the greater part of the seventeenth century, when
little was written about Surrey or his poetry, the fictitious ex-
ploits attributed to him by Nash seem to have been little known.
In 1675 Edward Phillips7 in a commentary on Surrey merely
mentioned that an English writer of the time had written that
Henry Howard (and Wyatt) had travelled into Italy and
brought back the Italian style. Twelve years later, however,
William Winstanley's Lives of the Most Famous English Poets8
again printed the elaborated story, citing Drayton as its source.
A more important work to add currency and lend authority to
Nash's invention was the second edition of Athena Oxonienses;
although in the first edition Surrey is merely mentioned in the
article on Sir Thomas Wyatt as having travelled into Italy,
the edition of 1721° contains an account of Surrey's fictitious
journey, with many of its embellishments. It cites Drayton as
an authority, but fails to mention the ultimate source.
ton's notes, 1598 edition, p. 89, prove that The Unfortunate Traveller, was his
source. 6 Edition of 1598, p. 86.
7 Theatrum Poetarum, p. 97. This "English writer of the time" would seem to
be the author of The A rte of English Poesie*
8 P. 49 ff.; Nash is not mentioned as an authority, although it would seem that
some of Winstanley's material was drawn from The Unfortunate Traveler.
9 Vol. 1,68. "